J “NeonDragon” PefferHow to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy CreaturesCINCINNATI, OHIO www.impact-books.comAcknowledgments Id like to thank the following people for helping to bring this monstrosity to life. Lo, youve helped to unleash doom upon the masses, carried within the brightly colored pages of this seemingly harmless tutorial book:Alex Kolesar, Christy Pasqualetti, Will Sebree, Joseph Kovell and Mindy Timpone, for patiently listening to me whine, moan and ramble incoherently about deadlines that were looming over my head. Your free counsel wascheapand uminvaluable!Mona Michael, for calling, e-mailing, and nagging the artwork and text out of me. If not for her, this book probably wouldnt be in your hands nearly as soon as it was. (She makes me sound smart!) And of course, Mom and Dad for giving birth to me, raising me, and throwing metenderlyout into the world.DragonArt How to Draw Fantastic Dragons and Fantasy Creatures. Copyright 2005 by Jessica Peffer. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permis- sion in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by IMPACT Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Gal- braith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45236. (800) 289-0963. First Edition.Other fine IMPACT Books are available from your local bookstore, art supply store or direct from the publisher.11 10 09 08 13 12 9DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY FRASER DIRECT 100 Armstrong Avenue Georgetown, ON, Canada L7G 5S4 Tel: (905) 877-4411DISTRIBUTED IN THE U.K. AND EUROPE BY DAVID but in most cases they wont have much expression at all. Relax the eyebrows, close the eyes, droop the ears and have the mouth follow its natural lines without any lip accents.Angry Dragon: “Stop it already!” This little dragon is very angry! The jaw is fully open exposing allthe creatures very sharp teeth. The dragons lip curls up in a snarl and the eyes narrow to slits.Laughing Dragon: “I just ate the artist!” A laughing dragons mouth is wide open to let out the bellow of laughter and allow him to breathe a little harder. Curl the lip into a smile or this wide-open jaw will look like a screaming dragon! He may even be smiling enough to push a cheek up into the eye in a happy expression. Closed eyes show that the dragon is truly laughing hard.23241245Begin with a circle to indicate the largest portion of the dragons skull. From that, branch out a line from the base of the skull to help signify where the neck will fall.The upper jaw sticks out farther than the lower.Draw the eye ridge to give the dragon a forehead and expressions, much like an eyebrow.Fill out the neck.Split the dragons jaw.Add shape anddefinition to the line of the mouth.A cheekbone creates a sunken area for the eye socket.A line along the neck differentiates between the belly and the back.Extra horns can distinguish one dragon from another.Most nostrils have rims. Lips give you expression options.Add the places where the horns grow out, the spines and the scale details.Dragon head, side viewNow that youve explored some of the types of dragon heads and expressions, put your research to work in creating a basic dragon head from the side. The profile view of a dragons head is very striking and is a great starting point because there is lit- tle to no foreshortening or perspective involved.Once youve erased the construction lines and tightened up your line work, you can begin to color. Start with the large areas and work to the small. That way, you can adjust small patches of color to match the big ones. Charcoal gray horns and vibrant yellow eyes and teeth stand out against the blues.I colored this dragons dark violet-blue hidefirst. The next largest section is the belly. Gray- blue belly scales match the blue of the hide. Line WeightDragons are multi-dimensional, infinitely complex creatures. As such, dont tie us down to the page with weakling line work. Vary the line width to make your drawings come to life. Things with thicker lines will feel like they have more weight while making the objects they encase move toward the foreground. Details may be better rendered with thin lines.3Fill in the eye.Finish the basics by adding decorative horns or frills.Beef out the jawline.Add a sharp beak on the end of the snout, like a bird of prey.62526 Shading StylesDepending on whether you want more realistic-looking dragons or more stylized beasts, you can choose between two different types of shading. Flat cel-styleshading uses sharp transitions between lights and darks. Highlights are often depicted with sharp whites. Soft shading, on the other hand, is, well, soft. It incorporates gradual and smooth transitions from shadows to highlights for a more realistic look.Dragon head, front view The dragons h